A digital travel guide containing vegan, vegetarian, macrobiotic, organic, and gluten-free restaurants in Japan.
Majority of them are located in Tokyo, but I've also included some excellent spots in Kyoto and Fukuoka.
🌟 I’ve organized each restaurant with a convenient category that explains what type of food they serve
🌟 I’ve also included links to their websites/social media.
This guide contains 50 locations with many varieties of food, including:
🍰🍩 desserts
🍜🥢 ramen
🌮🍔 international cuisine
🍛🍱 Japanese food
☕️🥪 cafes and bakeries
💖💰 higher end restaurants for a special meal
📌 This guide also includes a zero-waste Guesthouse that has an earth-friendly plant-based café and bar, that sells by weight, without trash.
💕✨ I've also created a FREE vegan and vegetarian Japanese word and phrase list to help you navigate Japan, so you can just show people your phone, and point.
I’ve also including a handy Gluten Free phrase and help guide, too.
My hope is that even if you don't purchase my guide, these free phrase lists will at least help you! ✨
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Helpful Terms for Vegan and Vegetarian travellers:
The more commonly used terms:
vegetarian: ベジタリアン (beh-ji-tarian)
vegan: ヴィーガン (vui-gan) OR ビーガン (bee-gan)
The more traditional terms:
Buddhist vegan: 完全菜食主義者 (kanzen saishoku shugisha)
vegetarian 菜食主義者 (saishoku shugisha)
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NOTE: Even if you’re vegan, it’s good to start with this phrase, “beh-ji-tarian des” (I’m vegetarian) since it is already rare to be a vegetarian in Japan.
Saying you’re vegan will go over many people's heads, so if they say that they "can’t serve a vegetarian", they definitely can not serve a vegan.
Some helpful phrases you can keep handy on your phone:
I don’t eat meat, seafood, eggs and dairy products
肉とシーフードと卵と乳製品を食べません
(o-niku, shifudo, tamago, to nyūseihin wo tabemasen)
I don’t eat pork
豚肉を食べません
(buta niku wo tabemasen)
I don’t eat chicken
鶏肉を食べません
(tori niku wo tabemasen)
I don’t eat fish stock
魚のだしを食べません (sakana no dashi wo tabemasen)
I don’t eat eggs
卵を食べません
(tamago wo tabemasen)
I don’t eat cheese
チーズを食べません
(chizu wo tabemasen)
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How to express having an allergy:
I am allergic to shrimp
エビのアレルギーがあります
(ebi no arerugi ga arimasu)
For example:
I am allergic to _____________________
_____________________ の アレルギーがあります
_____________________ no arerugi ga arimasu
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GLUTEN FREE TIPS:
Many Japanese dishes contain soy sauce and/or miso, and most of them contain gluten.
I am allergic to wheat
小麦アレルギーです
(Komugi arerugi desu)
麩 質 Fushitsu is the Japanese word for gluten
グ ル テ ン sometimes it is written in Katakana, as “gu-ru-ten”
Things to avoid:
小麦, 小麦 粉
Komugi is wheat, komugiko is wheat flour.
麦 Mugi is barley, usually in mugicha, barley tea. Or rye, called rye-mugi (ライ麦).
醤 油 Shoyu, or soy sauce
味噌 Miso paste
水 飴 Mizuame, or malt syrup, and barley malt syrup are in many sweets
Helpful Phrases:
I cannot eat food that contains gluten. So I cannot eat anything made with wheat, rye or barley. That means that I cannot eat soy sauce which contains wheat, or miso that contains wheat.
私はグルテンを含む食品が食べられません。小麦・大麦・ライ麦が使われているものは全部です。そのため、小麦を原料としている醤油や味噌もいっさい口にできません。
I have a serious disease called celiac disease, so that I cannot eat food that contains gluten. I cannot eat anything made with wheat, rye, or barley. I cannot eat soy sauce which contains wheat or miso that contains wheat.
私は、グルテンの摂取によって発症する「セアリック病」という深刻な病気をもっています。そのため、小麦・大麦・ライ麦が使われている食品は食べられません。小麦を原料としている醤油や味噌もいっさい口にできません。
Does this contain wheat?
これは小麦を使っていますか。
Does this contain barley?
これは大麦を使っていますか。
Does this contain soy sauce?
これは醤油を使っていますか。
When you go to a chicken grilling shop, they can dip it in a sauce which contains soy sauce, but you can ask them to do the salt sprinkled version instead:
Can you do shio-yaki (salt-flavored)?
塩だけで焼いてもらえますか。